The Torch, The Lost, and The Hungry
by ConfusedReptileAgent
Summary: Marched with the group and held hope near now I scramble across the streets like a rat, lost, and afraid. I hide behind the wall of leather, burning my tracks and those blocking my path, I wear a mask to hide my shame, They will remember my Torch but not my name. I ravage and rage at the pains inside, Stalking and hiding for those that cry, to feed my Hunger in the night.


Hello to any of you who stumbled upon this fic. If you see any errors or problems please let me know, since this is my first fan fiction, well on this site anyway, I would accept any form of criticism helpful or hostile any really i am lonely and yearn for any communication. okay not really but please tell me how to improve this story.

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When i joined the national guard i was told "Charlie you need to be ready for anything" that "the world is a powder keg and it is our job to snuff out the spark on our side of the

planet". We never could have imagined that the spark we were sent to extinguish was in fact a raging inferno, and that our career choices marked us with kerosene. We only heard rumors at

first but we passed it off as a shitty joke spread around by a immature officer using this "green flu" as the punchline. Soon we started to receive reports of violent riots and gruesome

murders springing up all over the east coast like a wildfire. They told us to be ready and that we are likely to be called in to put these maniacs down, that was 3 weeks ago and we couldn't

get into contact with anyone since, and those of us who brought our personal phones couldn't get a signal. Then those rumors about that "flu" stopped being seen as silly and more of a

possibility, a possibility that scared us enough to send a small group to go see what the hell was happening, they never came back.

It was then that we had enough and packed up everything and prepared a convoy. We headed out before dawn to the nearest city under the cover of night to see the problem that was

plaguing all our thoughts. The officers told us that it was "just a trip to the city to get this communication mess straightened out nothing more" but the men arming the 50 calibers on the

humvees tell a different story. I was placed as a gunner for the humvee in front of the convoy and i was less then stoked about it. We all loaded up into the Humvees and pulled out onto the

road all of us thinking the same thing "What nasty trick does the world have in store for us".

The drive was mostly uneventful except for a private known for his weak bladder pissing his pants when we hit a particularly big bump and earning a roar of laughter through the cab of the

humvee. It was when the city was barely over the horizon when we spotted the recon group humvee, turned over and driver side smashed into a tree along the road. We stopped the convoy far away enough that the headlights were lighting up the crashed vehicle and some of the tree. I don't know how long we sat there in the dark watching the humvee as if it was just gonna up an

explode.

"Ramirez go check the humvee for the recon group" The officer's voice was just above a whisper when he gave the order but he might as well be putting holes in the roof with his

sidearm for how everyone in the humvee jumped suddenly when he broke the heavy silence. After the initial shock Ramirez opened the door and stepped out onto dirt road. it was at this time

that a voice in the back of my mind asked a question that i'm pretty sure everyone else stressing over, "What happened?"

Ramirez is only a few feet away from the wreckage when he turns back to us as if silently pleading with the officer to have someone else take the task. I turned the 50 cal. to

point at the humvee and gave Ramirez a thumbs up to reassure him that if this goes awry he has me covering his ass. He looked to me and gave a slight nod of thanks and turns back to the

humvee. We all watch as he creeps to the front passenger door and gets on his hands and knees to look through the smashed window, he stays like the for a few seconds before straightening

up and looking at us. He shrugs to us letting us know no one is in the front of the humvee. Ramirez gets up and walks around to the top of the humvee that is lodged in a tree and

pointing away from us and blocking the headlights. We wait for Ramirez to take out his flashlight to continue his search, when he gets it turned on he points it at the top, and yelp

jumping back fumbling his flashlight before it hits the ground. I clenched the handle of the silent beast ready to make it roar only to stop when Ramirez waves us over, his face is

holding an expression of fear and a urge to vomit, All the color in his face is gone and he is visibly shaking like a autumn leaf holding onto a branch against Wyoming winds. I Tap the

closest person in the cab and tell him to take hold of the gun. I climb out and hop down onto the road to approach the humvee, as i turn on my flashlight and withdraw my Beretta i walk

towards the humvee and Ramirez. I study the Humvee as more details become clearer as i approach, i take mental notes of the various scratches and deep dents on the side of the humvee, and in a odd way reminding me of the ewoks from Star Wars who used giant logs to smash the walkers on endor. I Shifted my gaze to look at Ramirez when i felt myself freeze, goose bumps rose and my blood ran cold as i looked at Ramirez's eyes. The headlights were covering most of his face except for halfway up his nose thanks to the front of his helmet, His eyes almost seemed to glow in the shadow casted by his helmet as the whites of his eyes reflected the little amount of light and gave me a heart attack worthy stare. He's eyes were so wide i swear it looked as if someone cut out his eyelids, and his irises and pupils mixed into a inky black color and appeared as the size of the tip of a ballpoint pen. i don't know how long i stood there staring into his unblinking nightmare worthy eyes but apparently it was long enough for others from the convoy to crawl out and walk up to see what the problem was.

We Stared at him silently, our guns clenched firmly as if Ramirez was going to summon hell from the depths and tear our souls from our bodys. His mouth twitches and that subtle

movement had us all jump back and point all our firepower at him. And again his mouth twitch and a low croak sounded from him as if trying to find words for a feeling that has never been

felt before.

"I...i found the g-gunner" he stuttered in such a way like the words would call upon a mighty force to smite him if spoken out loud.

I broke eye contact long enough to stand beside him behind the humvee. i hesitated pointing the light into the darkness at what turned Ramirez into a wreck worse than the recon

humvee. With concentrated willpower or foolish curiosity i light up the scene. " O-oh god hurgh" i felt my stomach convulse like an intense exorcism was taking place upon me and i spewed

my stomach fluids onto the dry dead grass. my knees buckled and i had enough energy to barely use my arms to keep me from planting my face into the ground and bile. some of the puke was

stuck in my nose from the force of the vomit climbing through my chest and out my throat. i could hear the others looking at the grotesque site with there flashlights some having the same

reaction as me and others looking away or staring in disbelief trying to deny what they were seeing was real.

The Gunner for the recon team was tightly wedged in between the machine gun nest and the tree making the middle of his back folded in a way that morbidly resembles a hard taco

shell. Small branches were impaled in his torso and shoulders, his stomach was gaping open like a microwaved hot dog his entrails leading from under him and between the ground and lodged humvee indicating he was torn open before probably from the humvee rolling over multiple times? His arms were crushed and torn like a balloon full of wood splinters and half of his left arm was gone entirely. Next his head oh god his head, it was crushed and ripped up like the worst possible road rash probably from the roll overs that would also explain why his head

looks like someone to a aluminum baseball bat to a rotting watermelon. his eyes where not here or that they might be smashed and torn and blended in with his mutilated features, his flesh

was pulled out and away from the carcase on all sides as if something has been eating the remains.

It was around this point that the wind changed direction and the smell of rot and bodily fluids fluid our senses causing us all to gag we those who weren't already gagging that is. i

tried to stand up and look away but only managed in flopping on my side and whimpering like a starved and beaten mutt. i wanted to get away from the body so badly but my dry heaving was

preventing any movement from me. i felt a pair of ice cold hands grab my leg and drag me from behind the humvee and onto the road and in direct view of the bright headlights ever watching

gaze. my stomach began to calm down but my brain was short circuiting from the real life horror movie gore. i looked to see helped me get away from the traumatizing scene only to be looking

into the still colorless face of Ramirez, though this time his eyes were not visible from where i lay.

"I found the gunner" he said his voice monotone and empty, the very sound of his voice was bone chilling to say the least. he held out his hand to me as a gesture to help me up, i

took it and he pulled me up to my feet with a strength that i was very unaware he had.

"i found the gunner" he repeated in that cold soulless tone that was beginning to scare me more then the corpse between the machine and wood.

"R-Ramirez are y-you okay?" i stutterd fear sticking its icy nails in my heart and lungs as i looked in the dark shadow under his helmets visor desperately looking for a sign of his

eyes or any indication that he was still alive.

"i found the driver" he said before snatching the flashlight out of my hands scaring me and almost causing my heart to collapse from the workout its getting from all the fear making it pound and pump away. He walked to the middle of the road and pointed the light far down the path and another body lay at the end of the beam of light.i walked over to once again

investigate it on lt to feel my stomach tighten again when i saw bodys details .

This body unlike the other was laying sprawled on his stomach his back looked like someone put it through a wood chipper and called it a day. pieces of organs and intestines where

lying all over the ground around the body like used confetti. There was deep gashes down his legs like something was pulling him along but the scratches in the dirt in front of him was

aligned somewhat with his hands, unfortunately upon closer inspection dirt filled up the space between finger and finger nail meaning he was desperately crawling away only to be dragged

back and the many rows of disturbed dirt say he crawled and was dragged back multiple times. There was also chunks of his neck missing as if something was biting pieces off in small

amounts, the bite marks and bitten chunks where away or around any of the vital veins in the neck meaning he was not blessed with a quick end, there was blood smeared in odd pointed angels

from the bite marks that ripped open the flesh but was not taken out in chunks to be eaten...eaten? anyways the blood smears seemed to say what ever did this was licking the wounds it inflicted upon this man. His wrists were covered in shallow cuts not deep enough to make him bleed out, the skin was red tender as if struggling against restraints...as if he was being held down. I held my breath as i took a look at his face only to find 4 thin lines across the cheek on his left side interesting, i looked at his eyes only to find them closed and what i can

only assume as a expression of anguish and agony. poor basterds.

"how did you find him" i asked Ramirez in a low tone.

"The dirt told me" he said again in that tone. what could he mean by that

"what do you mean by that?"

Ramirez to his credit pointed to the dirt road and made a swinging motion of pointing from the destroyed humvee, across the dirt road, and to the body. i followed his movements a

few moments longer when it clicked and i looked at the dirt road and sure enough was the dirt pushed aside or along the ground.

"He was crawling from the scene." i knew this was one hell of scene we came across and as much as i wanted to figure out what the fuck was going on i was interrupted by Ramirez.

"We are in over our heads Charlie" His voice cracked as he spoke his body starting to shake again. i nodded dumbly at him as my mind was trying to wrap itself around what was

going on.

"Get back to the convoy we are leaving now"

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Thank you for reading this far, hopefully you liked it, and sorry if anything seems rushed or out of place, I suck at beginnings and the chapter was finished in the middle of the night but I will comeback to fix any problems. Good Night!


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